


An Ember in the Dark

by Luspiel



Series: Harry Potter and Jazz [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Curious Harry Potter, Fireplaces, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Memories, Nostalgia, Poor Marauders, Poor Moony, Remus Lupin’s storytelling skills, Short One Shot, Working Through Grief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-19 12:48:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22577935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luspiel/pseuds/Luspiel
Summary: Sometimes letting go can be hard, but Harry hardly has anything to miss.A chat by the fireside over a warm mug of cocoa.
Relationships: Remus Lupin & Harry Potter
Series: Harry Potter and Jazz [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591132
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	An Ember in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by “Let it Choke” by TheDivineComedian.

Harry approached the man in question with some caution. He didn’t want to upset any old or new wounds that may have formed. After all, he was only asking to satiate his own selfish curiosity. “Professor Lupin, could you perhaps tell me a little about what Sirius was like before, y’know.”

The brunette’s head swiveled away from the hearth and stared at Harry for a few seconds before actually registering his face. Remus chuckled, “I haven’t been your Professor in two years, Harry.”

“Yeah, but you were the only one of my DADA professors who was actually competent,” Harry took a seat on the couch next to him. He passed Professor Lupin a mug of hot chocolate as a sort of offering in exchange for knowledge. The chocolate lover accepted without hesitation, happily taking a sip. 

“I don’t know whether I should take that as a compliment or not considering both my predecessors and replacements.” Professor Lupin pauses mid sip, realization of the original topic finally coming back to him. “You asked about Sirius right?” Harry nodded slowly gauging his reactions, “Well you’re right, he was never quite the same after 12 years in Azkaban. I could only imagine...” Remus trailed off. 

Harry briefly wondered if he had made a mistake. There was most likely a reason as to why Professor Lupin was sitting by himself in 12 Grimmauld Place watching fire dancing around in an ornate fireplace. In his curiosity, he had over-stepped an invisible line and caused the other man harm. Mrs. Weasley would find it right to scold him for being so impolite. He should apologize—that was of course his first thought before Professor Lupin began speaking.

“Sirius is—was quite the character even growing up,” Remus’s smile is thin and strained. Still Harry couldn’t help but shift closer as he heard stories of his late godfather in his youth. Sirius had told him stories of his father, but didn’t really share much about his own life unless the two intertwined. Now Harry grieved them both and perhaps he could try to fill the holes with aged memories. The look on Professor Lupin’s face was almost enough to make his guilt too overpowering. 

He wondered why the man had never deigned it within his rights to tell Harry about his closeness to the Potter family. He could guess that it most likely had something to do with the man’s lycanthropy and professorship, but even after that why did he choose to keep it a secret?

“By our third year at Hogwarts, we were notorious troublemakers. Called ourselves the Marauders and liked to think ourselves to be witty,” Professor Lupin blushed a bit at the childish nickname. “Your godfather wasn’t always rebellious and certainly didn’t get to the point of being politically rebellious until much later, but he could bloody well stir up a crowd. There wasn’t a single undramatic bone in his body.”

Harry smile warmly, imagining a younger version of Sirius with black hair flying around his shoulders as he breezed past prefects hot on his trail. “The man would even go as far to call Minerva, Minnie. Come to think of it, I think she may have actually grown fond of it,” Professor Lupin took a sip of his hot cocoa and hummed appreciatively. 

“What was Sirius like around my age?” Harry inquired. He hoped that Sirius hadn’t had to fight any of his teachers or had a deep seated mistrust of the Ministry like Harry himself did.

“Much of the same, only louder,” Professor Lupin looked into the crackling fire. His eyes shone with remembrance, and without warning he launched into an anecdote, “The year was 1977, we were seventh years both looking forward to and dreading our graduation.”

“I couldn’t imagine anyone dreading graduation,” Harry took a sip of his own cocoa disbelievingly. 

Professor Lupin chuckles, “Well it wasn’t Hogwarts graduation itself that we were dreading. Outside the school the war was raging fiercely by this time. People’s family members were being announced dead, and one had to wonder if they were the next soldier soon to be snatched from their cozy life at school.” 

Harry’s eyes darkened, “Voldemort ruined so many lives,” his voice was quiet, “Our generations really got the short end of the stick.” 

“Yes, yes they did,” Remus was back to staring contemplatively at the fire place instead of making eye contact. Harry didn’t mind, he wasn’t a stickler for etiquette. 

“Anyway, tensions were high as the Welcome Feast unfolded. A scream came from near the Ravenclaw table and blocking out the faux constellations was an enormous Dark Mark.” Harry’s breath hitches at the mentioning of the foul insignia, the calling card of the Death Eaters.

“Everyone was so afraid of getting caught up in the war and the fears of so many students, especially the crying first-years, made the boggart much harder to vanquish. A few well-aimed ‘Riddikulus’ curses wouldn’t cut it. We needed something more, and that’s exactly when Sirius erupted into laughter. If you’ve ever heard Sirius full belly laugh,” Harry had and was thankful for the memory still lingering in his eardrums at that moment, “then it wouldn’t be surprising that he garnered most of the attention in the hall.”

“Sirius swaggered onto the Gryffindor table, boot clad foot now cheekily in my side salad mind you, grinned and yelled, ‘Let it choke!’ For a moment there was silence and a beat later, choke it did.” Remus was now smiling brightly at the memory as was Harry. Only Sirius could make a joke out of the infamous Dark Mark.

“After that the professors were able to easily take care of the boggart and the feast resumed with a few new conversation topics,” Remus finished. 

“I can’t believe that’s a true story! Someone has to tell it at...at, well, his funeral,” Harry realized the words as soon as they tumbled out of his mouth. The cheery aura was now gone replaced by a once again somber mourning. 

“Perhaps you can, Harry,” at Harry’s look of protestation Remus offered an explanation, “I don’t think I’d be able tell it on that day. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be able to say much of anything at all on that day.” His gaze was far away, beyond the fireplace and to a place unknown to Harry. A place only he could fathom.

“I understand, but for what it’s worth, you’re a great storyteller, Moony.” A small smile spread across the man’s face, and for once it reached his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this instead of updating my other work lol. I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
